Oklahoma Football: 5 Things the Sooners Learned from Last Year

I am running out of ways to cleverly describe last season in a sentence or two. If I type the phrase "disappointing season" or "underwhelming performances" again I might go crazy.

You know what happened.

Sooner Nation expected a championship, everyone (media, fans, players) thought the they were going to do it, and they didn't. They way didn't.

There is always a silver lining to any bad situation, however. In the case of the 2011 season, that silver lining is a learning opportunity. The best way to right a wrong is to admit that you screwed up, figure out what happened, and try not to let it happen again.

Luckily for the 2012 Sooners, there is plenty to learn from last season. Let's take a look at five lessons head coach Bob Stoops and his men can take away from last year.

Landry Jones Is Not Sam Bradford

It is hard to say you feel bad for a guy that will be making tens of millions of dollars a year from now, but I can't help but feel for Landry Jones just a bit.

There had been a gradual progression in quarterbacks during the Stoops era—from Josh Heupel to Jason White to Sam Bradford—and one could have only assumed it would continue with Jones.

The script was altered, however, when a trembling, mustachioed freshman from New Mexico was thrust into action after Bradford went down in the first half of the first game of the 2009 season. You know, the same Sam Bradford that was coming off a season where he won the Heisman trophy after leading an offense to the most points in a season...ever.

Have there ever been bigger shoes to fill? Honestly?

Landry has been held to an impossible standard of perfection, amplifying every small mistake into a catastrophic failure, complete with groans and head-slaps from the stands.

If you peel off those burdensome layers of expectations and look at his three seasons without bias, you'll see what Landry really is: a pretty good quarterback who has probably reached his peak.

He made a small leap from his freshman to sophomore year but seemed to plateau his junior year, suggesting we may have seen his best. 

That best isn't bad by any means; it's just not great.

It seems like the coaching staff accepted this fact last season when they brought in the "Belldozer" package to improve red-zone and third-down efficiency. Instead of waiting for Landry to become something he might not become, Stoops brought in someone else to do the job in certain situations and it worked.

Never, Ever Underestimate an Opponent

This was easily the most frustrating storyline to unravel during last season.

After absolutely mauling Texas, improving to 5-0 and looking like the beast we all thought they were, the Sooners zombied through the first half against a lowly Kansas squad and unexpectedly had a game on their hands. The Sooners turned it on in the second half and won by 30, but the infection of arrogance had begun to set in.

By the next week that small infection had grown to a full-blown epidemic as the Sooners let a tremendously less talented Texas Tech team walk into Memorial Stadium and end the nation's longest home winning streak. They again did not take their opponent seriously and Tech's 31-7 third-quarter lead proved insurmountable despite a furious comeback.

I don't think this was the case in the other two losses against Baylor and Oklahoma State—the shortcomings were more on-field than in-head—so maybe the Sooners did learn their lesson here.

Dont Bite on the Fake!

Speaking of on-field shortcomings, Baylor completely exposed Oklahoma's secondary in its first-ever win against the Sooners.

I had nightmares for weeks of Baylor receivers running up and down the field without a defender in sight. Even watching Robert Griffin III run the 40-yard dash at the combine brought on horrific flashbacks.

Bomb after bomb after bomb. And to what end, you ask? For the secondary to again get caught ball-watching on the final play of the game, allowing Terrance Williams to catch the game-winning touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone without a Sooner within five yards of him.

The OU defense bit on every one of RG3's fake hand-offs in the zone-read, allowing gaping holes for receivers to streak through. If the Sooners are to make another run next season, new defensive coordinator Mike Stoops better get things sorted out because you better believe opposing coaches were paying attention.

Take the Hard Line

This isn't so much a lesson learned as it was a lesson reinforced.

Bob Stoops has never been afraid to make the tough decision, even if it hurts the team in the short run. He proved it in 2006 when he dismissed Rhett Bomar from the team immediately upon learning of his dirty deeds. Stoops could have easily swept it under the rug and kept his 5-star quarterback on the team.

Go ask Ohio State fans how that strategy worked out.

Stoops again took the hard line last year with Austin Haywood. The talented sophomore tight end was frustrated in how things were being run and chose to walk away from the team. He quickly realized his mistake, however, and asked Coach Stoops to be reinstated.

Considering Haywood's loss would mean there were zero tight ends on the roster for next season, Stoops could have just let him back in. Instead, he let Haywood attempt to work his way back on the team (whatever that means), but Austin ended up transferring in the end.

It was a tough decision for the coach, but you can't have players on your team that just walk away when times get tough. Yes, it put the team in a bit of a pinch in the short term, but it sends the right kind of message to the rest of the college football world.

Everyone Deserves a Shot

In a way, this is the opposite lesson from the last slide. When a player works his butt off and has the right attitude, he deserves his shot.

This lesson played itself out several times over the course of last season.

After not getting any snaps at NAIA Langston University, Dominique Whaley walked away from the game and enrolled at OU because of its top-notch accounting program. Luckily, he was talked into trying out by his family and the rest is sweet history.

His hard work and determination saw him shoot to the top of the depth chart and turn what was supposed to be a committee into a one-man show, surpassing 4- and 5-star recruits along the way.

Aaron Ripkowski, a former Texas power-lifting champion, was another player to benefit from hard work and a do-whatever-it-takes-for-the-team attitude. Ripkowski isn't necessarily a talented football player, but when the Belldozer package caught fire, he got his shot as a fullback and ran with it.

The final example is freshman offensive guard Adam Shead, who got called into action when Ben Habern went down. There were several other more experienced options, but Stoops went with Shead and it paid off big time.

Just because they are young, inexperienced or didn't have many stars next to their name in high school doesn't mean they cant play. Hard work and the right attitude have always paid off with Coach Stoops. It is a fantastic example to set for his players and is a reason he is considered one of the top coaches around.